1. Field of the Invention
A pinball game including plural rear re-projectors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Originally, bagatelle games, i.e. pinball games, were quite simple. They included a forwardly and downwardly sloping playing surface. Several balls were included which were arranged to be projected along a side of the game from the front toward the rear after which they would roll back toward the front, striking impediments during their downward travel. The playing surface usually was provided with various pockets of different values and with various pins or bumpers to randomly alter the movement of rolling balls.
The games have become more sophisticated with the passage of time, and among the complex variations was the provision of rear re-projectors which, when touched by a descending ball, re-projected the ball toward the rear of the game, thus prolonging the play of each ball. Frequently, a ball would be rearwardly re-projected several times during its play before reaching an out-of-play position. Rear re-projection was accomplished by a movable impediment on the playing surface. For example, the impediment might be an oscillatable lever sometimes known as a "flipper," or it might be a circular bumper which was capable of rocking or expanding in such a manner as to force the ball back toward the rear of the game, or it might be a non-circular bumper which was capable of rocking and was provided with a sensing element that would cause the bumper to move in such a fashion as to snap the ball back toward the rear of the game. These rear re-projectors, which also may be referred to as supplemental rear projectors to distinguish them from the principal rear projector that comes into use each time a fresh ball is introduced on the table for play thereof, were characterized by the provision of a separate solenoid for each of them. The solenoid was energized each time that a ball struck the impediment, the actuation of the solenoid causing the operation of the rear re-projector to be effected.
The use of such plural solenoids has substantially added to the cost and maintenance of pinball games and has greatly discouraged the inclusion of supplemental rear re-projectors in low cost pinball games, particularly in pinball games designed for domestic use.
So far as the present inventor is aware, there are no prior patents that disclose the use of a single solenoid for energization of plural individual rear re-projectors which are struck by a ball rolling down a sloping pinball playing surface. The only patent of which the inventor is cognizant that might even be considered to be relevant is Simpkins, U.S. Pat. No. 2,101,201 in which a pinball apparatus is shown that includes several hurdles in each of which a downwardly rolling ball may be trapped from time to time, each hurdle being provided with a forward projector, the purpose of which is to flip the ball over the hurdle on its way to the front of the game. The energization of all of the flipping structures is provided by a single solenoid.